At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the Crow Indian Reservation,[1] White Swan went with Major Reno's detachment, and fought alongside the soldiers at the south end of the village.

After being disabled by his wounds, he was taken to Reno's hill entrenchments by Half Yellow Face, the pipe-bearer (leader) of the Crow scouts, which no doubt saved his life.

These drawings were bought by visitors to the Crow Agency and the nearby Custer Battlefield, providing White Swan with a welcome source of income.

Although his early death and his inability to hear and speak left him out of the limelight that later fell on the other surviving Crow scouts, his outstanding bravery during the battle and his artistic ability established an enduring legacy.

Motivated by growing unemployment caused by the Panic of 1873 ever-increasing numbers of gold seekers poured the Black Hills, establishing mining centers and boom towns.

The U.S. Government had tried unsuccessfully in 1875 to bring the Sioux living on the reservations to a conference to consider modifying the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty by the U.S. repurchasing the Black Hills back from the tribe.

However in Article XII of that treaty any modification of treaty lands required the agreement of 3/4 of the tribe's adult males, and there were large bands of "off-reservation" Sioux (including influential leaders Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Crow King, Rain in the Face, Gall and many others) who did not reside on the reservations and who also did not want to cede the Black Hills back to federal control.

These bands lived year round in their traditional migratory way on the huge hunting preserve in the “unceded Indian Territory” in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota given the Sioux by Article XVI of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) which included the vast area extending westward from the Black Hills across the entire Powder River Basin to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains.

In the fall 1875, the U.S. Government gave up on fair or equitable methods and sent out messengers to each band with an impossible ultimatum — to leave their winter camps in the hunting preserve and immediately return to their agencies in the Dakota Territories by January 31, 1876.

They pointed out that Indian warriors traveled light and fast and struck quickly, whereas the soldiers marched slowly with wagons and thus never found the enemy.

On April 10, 1876 some twenty five Crows were enlisted for six months in the 7th Infantry by Lt. James Bradley, chief of scouts,[7] including White Swan and Half Yellow Face.

[7] Custer was ordered to locate the encampment of these "off-reservation" Sioux on the Rosebud Creek, or in the adjacent Little Bighorn Valley, around 20 miles (30 km) inside the eastern border of the Crow Indian reservation.

This boundary area was a sort of no-man's land with both Sioux and Crows hunting on it, and warriors from both tribes crossing it to raid and steal horses from each other.

These newer trails were left by many other bands of Sioux/Cheyenne coming from the reservations to join the original "off-reservation" Sioux for their yearly summer gathering.

[7] On the early morning of June 25, 1876, White Swan and other Crow Scouts ascended a high point on the divide between the Little Bighorn River and Rosebud Creek.

[4] From this lookout point (which later became known as the "Crow's Nest") the scouts saw very large horse herds on the western margins of the Little Bighorn Valley, some 15 air miles away.

However, Custer was focused on his concern that his force had been detected that morning by Sioux scouts, and he feared that if he did not attack at once, the large encampment would break up into many smaller bands which would scatter in all directions, thus escaping and avoiding the decisive engagement the army hoped for.

Custer accordingly made plans for an immediate attack, and as he proceeded down Reno Creek toward the Little Bighorn Valley, he created four separate detachments, intended to prevent the encampment from scattering, and to strike the village from different directions.

Back in the timber, Half Yellow Face got the wounded White Swan on a horse and shielded by the timber, waited until the mass of Sioux warriors had turned their attention to Custer's column, now approaching the north end of the village, after which Yellow Face led the horse across the river and up the bluffs to the location where the Reno detachment was digging in,[19] and where they were later reinforced by the other detachments under Captain Benteen and Lieutenant McDougall.

Troopers with Reno later recounted how White Swan, though wounded, wanted to continue fighting, and disabled though he was, tried to crawl back to the firing lines.

This intense engagement lasted about an hour during the afternoon of June 25, 1876, after which the warriors returned to press the attack on Reno's entrenched position on the bluffs.

[7] In the late afternoon and evening, the Sioux and Cheyenne ended their siege of Reno and Benteen and hastily broke camp and withdrew south, up the Little Bighorn Valley.

[4][19][20] White Swan was carried on the Far West about 40 to 50 river miles down the Bighorn to the Yellowstone, where he was left in a temporary hospital facility with some of the less seriously wounded soldiers.

[20][21] Curly and Half Yellow Face had not gone with the other scouts to the Crow Village, and had returned with Gibbon to the mouth of the Big Horn where White Swan was in the temporary army hospital.

[20] On July 4, Col. Gibbon gave Curly and Half Yellow Face leave, but kept White Swan in the hospital so that he could continue to get medical treatment and recover.

Reno's scout in Custer battle, wounded many times, picked up in battlefield two days later -- deaf and dumb from stroke of war club in forehead.

[3] These facts indicate that White Swan lived in a more isolated fashion than he would have otherwise done, had he had a larger base of Crow relatives, either by blood or by clan.

White Swan would have needed income after he had ceased to be an army scout and living at Crow Agency, just a few miles from the site of the famous battle, he found a ready market for this art.

[24] White Swan's art showing his war deeds ideally captured the essence of the Indian warrior tradition based on heroic acts.

[4] When living at Crow Agency on the Little Bighorn river, White Swan had a tepee which had drawings around the lower portion that depicted the Custer battle.